TEFL/TESOL Certification Methodology and Approaches to ELT Syllabus

Methodology and Approaches to ELT syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Methodology and Approaches to ELT in TEFL/TESOL Certification, not a summary of it.

1. 1

   History of Teaching Methods

   4 topics

   • Grammar-Translation and the Direct Method
   • Audiolingualism and Situational Language Teaching
   • Designer/Humanistic Methods
     • Total Physical Response (TPR)
     • The Silent Way and Suggestopedia
     • Community Language Learning
   • The post-method condition and principled eclecticism
2. 2

   Communicative and Meaning-Focused Approaches

   4 topics

   • Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
     • Communicative competence: grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse, strategic
     • The information gap principle
   • Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT)
     • Pre-task, task cycle, and language focus
     • Designing meaningful tasks
   • Content-Based Instruction and CLIL
   • The Natural Approach and comprehension-based teaching
3. 3

   Lesson Frameworks for Presenting Language

   4 topics

   • The PPP Model
     • Presentation, Practice, Production stages
     • Strengths and criticisms of PPP
   • Test-Teach-Test (TTT)
     • Diagnostic use of the first test stage
   • Guided Discovery and Inductive Teaching
     • Inductive versus deductive grammar teaching
   • Engage-Study-Activate (ESA) framework
4. 4

   Teaching Receptive Skills

   3 topics

   • Teaching Reading
     • Skimming, scanning, and reading for detail
     • Top-down and bottom-up processing
     • Pre-, while-, and post-reading staging
   • Teaching Listening
     • Listening for gist versus specific information
     • Authentic versus graded audio
     • Addressing listening difficulties and decoding
   • Sub-skills, schema activation, and prediction
5. 5

   Teaching Productive Skills

   3 topics

   • Teaching Speaking
     • Accuracy versus fluency activities
     • Controlled, semi-controlled, and free practice
     • Role-plays, discussions, and communicative games
   • Teaching Writing
     • Process versus product approaches
     • Genre and text-type writing
     • Drafting, peer review, and feedback on writing
   • Integrating the four skills in a lesson

Methodology and Approaches to ELT flashcards for TEFL/TESOL Certification

23 of 50 cards from the Methodology and Approaches to ELT deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What are the core characteristics of the Grammar-Translation Method?

   Teaching the L2 through the L1; focus on reading/translating literary texts, explicit grammar rules, memorized vocabulary lists, and accuracy. Little attention to speaking or listening.

2. What are the defining principles of the Direct Method?

   Teach exclusively in the target language, with no translation; meaning conveyed through demonstration, realia, and association; emphasis on oral/spoken communication, inductive grammar, and everyday vocabulary.

3. How does the Direct Method differ from Grammar-Translation regarding the use of the L1?

   Grammar-Translation relies heavily on the L1 for explanation and translation; the Direct Method bans the L1 and conveys meaning directly through the target language.

4. What learning theory underlies Audiolingualism, and what classroom technique does it produce?

   Behaviorism (habit formation through stimulus-response-reinforcement). It produces repetitive pattern drills, mimicry-memorization, and an emphasis on error avoidance.

5. What is a 'drill' in Audiolingualism, and name two common types.

   A controlled, repetitive practice activity to build automatic habits. Types include repetition drills, substitution drills, transformation drills, and chain drills.

6. What is Situational Language Teaching (the British/oral approach) and how does it present new language?

   It presents and practices new language in meaningful situations/contexts, with carefully graded vocabulary and structures, oral presentation before reading/writing, and inductive grammar.

7. Name the four 'Designer' or Humanistic methods of the 1970s.

   The Silent Way, Suggestopedia (Desuggestopedia), Community Language Learning (Counseling-Learning), and Total Physical Response (TPR).

8. What is the central idea of Total Physical Response (TPR)?

   Language is learned by linking it to physical movement; learners respond to commands with actions, with a silent period before speaking, mirroring first-language acquisition.

9. What is the teacher's role in the Silent Way?

   The teacher stays mostly silent, acting as a facilitator who prompts learners to discover and produce language themselves, using tools like Cuisenaire rods and sound-color charts.

10. What is the key feature of Suggestopedia (Desuggestopedia)?

    It removes psychological barriers to learning using a relaxed, comfortable environment, music, and positive suggestion to boost confidence and memory.

11. What defines Community Language Learning (CLL)?

    A humanistic, counseling-based approach where the teacher acts as a 'counselor' supporting learners ('clients'); learners decide what to say, often translated by the teacher, to reduce anxiety in a community of peers.

12. What is meant by the 'post-method condition' (Kumaravadivelu)?

    The recognition that no single method is universally best; teachers should move beyond rigid methods toward context-sensitive, principled teaching driven by particularity, practicality, and possibility.

13. What is 'principled eclecticism'?

    Drawing selectively on techniques from multiple methods, guided by principles, learner needs, and context, rather than adhering rigidly to one single method.

14. What are Kumaravadivelu's three parameters of the post-method pedagogy?

    Particularity (sensitivity to local context/learners), Practicality (teachers theorize from practice), and Possibility (awareness of social/political identity and empowerment).

15. What is Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and its central goal?

    An approach making communicative competence the goal of instruction; meaningful communication and use are prioritized over isolated grammar, with fluency valued alongside accuracy.

16. What are the four components of Canale and Swain's communicative competence?

    Grammatical (linguistic) competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence.

17. What is an 'information gap' activity in CLT?

    A task where learners hold different pieces of information and must communicate to complete it, creating a real need to use language to exchange unknown information.

18. Distinguish 'fluency' from 'accuracy' in language teaching.

    Fluency is the ability to communicate smoothly and meaningfully in real time; accuracy is the correct use of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. CLT balances both.

19. What is Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT)?

    An approach where learning is organized around meaningful tasks with a real outcome; language emerges from completing the task, with form addressed as needed.

20. What are the three phases of Willis's TBLT framework?

    Pre-task (introduction to topic and task), Task cycle (task, planning, report), and Language focus (analysis and practice of language used).

21. What distinguishes a 'task' from an 'exercise' in TBLT?

    A task has a primary focus on meaning, a gap/real-world relationship, learner-chosen resources, and a clear non-linguistic outcome; an exercise focuses on practicing a predetermined language form.

22. What is Content-Based Instruction (CBI)?

    An approach where language is taught through subject-matter content (e.g., science, history); language is the medium for learning content, so learners acquire language while studying meaningful material.

23. What does CLIL stand for, and what is its 'dual-focus' nature?

    Content and Language Integrated Learning. It has a dual focus: teaching both subject content and a foreign language simultaneously through that language.

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